Meme that machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence gathers support

Meme that machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence gathers support

KurzweilAI.net points us to this CNET News report that Ray Kurzweil’s concept of an impending “singularity,” in which machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence, has garnered support from Intel’s Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner. From “Intel touts progress toward intelligent computers” by Stephen Shankland:

I hope Intel warned the Luddites and pessimists away at the door, because the chipmaker had a lot of bullish statements Thursday [August 21] about its belief that computers will become smarter than humans.

At the Intel Developer Forum here, Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner showed off a number of technologies in computing, robotics, and communication that he cited as evidence that Ray Kurzweil’s concept of “singularity,” when machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence, is impending. Demonstrations spotlighted the wireless transmission of electrical power, dextrous robots with new sensory abilities, a direct interface to the brain, programmable materials that can be used for shape-shifting devices such as resizable cell phones, and silicon photonics that enables chips to communicate with photons rather than electrons.

9 Comments

I’m completely for the Singularity. If it could make a world without handicaps, cancers, or disabilities that would be wonderful. Having computers become smarter than humans is great because we can put computers inside our heads to become smarter and eventually have robot spouses. My mother is a bit of a neo-conservative Luddite about it right now but she will get around to it if she lives to see the year 2045 (when the Singularity is supposed to take place). By then, she will regain most of her mental faculties and most of her wrinkles will be gone thanks to nanorobotics and nanomedicine.

Maybe I’ll buy it in on the ‘surpassing’ idea as soon as someone adequately defines intelligence. You can bow down to your new robot masters if you like, but for now I’m with Roger Penrose on this one.

“Ray Kurzweil’s singularity”? He didn’t come up with the concept, nor did he name it. I wonder whether this Intel expert also talks about Sony’s invention of the transistor, or Bill Gates’ invention of the microprocessor.

AI should actually be redefined as “Artificial Insects,” a project that has some chance of success in the 21st Century. As to “Artificial (Human) Intelligence,” I say no way.

I’m a former member of the artificial intelligentsia (Ph.D. in AI, etc). My experience in AI firmly convinced me that attempting to accomplish AI is the perfect punishment for the hubris of believing in AI.

Famous computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra is quoted as having said “asking whether computers can think is like asking whether submarines can swim.” Do we really care any more about whether railroad trains or auto-mobile carriages can roll faster than horses can run? As Humpty-Dumpty said to Alice, “the question is who is to be master.”